APPLICATION OF SENSORY ANALYSES IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF A NEW APPLE CIDER

Resumo

The development of a sparkling apple cider based on French technology and quality and desirable characteristics for Brazilian consumer may be a stratagem to development of a new beverage. The objective of this work was to develop and to characterize this beverage through physical-chemical and sensory analysis. The ordering and acceptability test and quantitative descriptive analysis (QDA) were performed in this work. The QDA was performed with 13 selected and trained testers. 16 aspects of product were evaluated: color, foam, turbidity, brightness, bubbles, the fruity, alcoholic, acetic, and fermented aromas, sweetness, astringency, acidity, alcohol, apple flavor and viscosity. The alcoholic degree was standardized in 4.5 ^oGL. The ordering test showed 50.0 g L^-1 and 0.75 g 100mL^-1 of residual sugar and acidity, respectively. The foam characteristics were obtained with 4.0 g hL^-1 of propylene glycol alginate. The residual sugar was standardized with cryoconcentrated apple juice, which provided striking fruity aroma. The product was classified as sweet, low viscosity, cloudy however yellow as beer, with pleasant and persistent foam and bubbles. The acceptance rate was 81.6%, with purchase intent of circa 85.0%. The results indicate a high quality sparkling beverage with good marketing perspectives.